Anne (Jan) W. White, Partner

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Anne (Jan) W. White, with over 30 years of legal experience in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia, is a Fellow in the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. She attended Stanford Law School and is a magna cum laude graduate of Duke University, where she was also an Angier B. Duke scholar and Phi Beta Kappa member. Jan’s diverse background prepared her to resolve complex divorce issues involving taxes, retirement benefits, trusts, businesses, and related financial issues. Earlier in her career, she studied finance at Stanford Business School, trained in tax, business and litigation at the Washington, D.C. firm of Hogan & Hartson, and practiced international trade law.

Jan is consistently named one of the area’s top divorce attorneys by Washingtonian Magazine and Bethesda Magazine. She is recognized by her peers as 2016 Best Lawyer of the year Collaborative Law: Family Lawyer. She is named in 2016 to Maryland’s Top 100 Lawyers and Top 50 Women Lawyers by Super Lawyer; she is also listed among DC’s Top 50 Women Lawyers.

Jan helps each client find the best process. Other attorneys seek her services as a mediator to resolve difficult cases. In 2015, she trained with internationally acclaimed mediator, Gary Friedman.

Jan is a leader and educator in the collaborative law approach to divorce. She serves as Chair of the D.C. Metro Protocols Committee and Co-Chair of the Ethics Committee of the Maryland Council of Collaborative Professionals. She is past President of the D.C. Academy of Collaborative Professionals and past Co-Chair of the Collaborative Professionals of Northern Virginia. As a founding member of the Collaborative Practice Training Institute, Jan trains other collaborative law professionals. She was honored with the first Member of the Year Award by the Collaborative Dispute Resolution Professionals (Maryland) for her work on the development of the D.C. Metro Area Protocols for Collaborative Divorce.

Jan finds that the collaborative law process benefits clients who are seeking to divorce in a way that maximizes their privacy, keeps their financial documents private, provides them with greater control over timing and outcome, emphasizes financial planning, and promotes family harmony and good parenting. She assures that clients are provided all the resources they need to deal with the legal, emotional and financial issues of divorce.

Formerly a performing dancer, Jan continues to practice her craft today. As a North Carolina native, she follows Duke and Carolina basketball and enjoys time at the beach. As regularly as she can, she participates in Spanish-language immersion programs in Mexico and Guatemala.

Blog Posts

In December 2017, Congress rushed to pass the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: a 503-page document that drastically alters several of the popular tax credits and deductions around which many divorcing families structure their financial planning. This first major tax reform in decades affects taxes beginning in 2018 and will have a significant impact on divorcing families. Family lawyers are still working on understanding the nuances of the changes and figuring out how to settle cases while some of the uncertainties in the application of the new law are being resolved by the Treasury Department.

Even the most amicable divorce can be expensive; it simply costs more to maintain two households. Through effective use of the tax code, however, family law attorneys, often working alongside… MORE >

The trend in recent years has been toward greater creativity in marriage ceremonies, including locations, vows, and officiants. In personalizing the ceremony, it is important to keep in mind that the legal requirements for marriage are set forth in the laws of each jurisdiction, both as to the qualifications for a person to marry and the legal steps necessary to ensure that the marriage is valid.

Historically, marriage has been subject to the control of state legislatures (in the District of Columbia, the City Council). Statutes set forth the requirements for who is allowed to marry, the required procedure to marry, and the legal effects of marriage. Spouses who marry in religious or other ceremonies that do not comply with the statutory requirements may be… MORE >

Premarital agreements get a bad rap for being anti-romantic, anti-relationship and getting a marriage off to a bad start. If they are done right, nothing could be further from the truth.

The Collaborative Process has gained traction in the last decade as a respectful way for couples to settle their divorce issues outside of court. Less attention has been given to how couples about to embark on marriage can use the Collaborative Process to develop a premarital agreement. Clients can benefit greatly if attorneys take note of how well the Collaborative Process fits this situation. In the Collaborative Process, the couple make their own decisions, staying together in the same room to discuss options to resolve their issues. They are guided in their discussions by… MORE >

In May Governor Martin O’Malley signed the Maryland Uniform Collaborative Law Act, which passed both houses of the Maryland Legislature without objection. Effective October 1, 2014, this law allows divorcing couples to craft their own agreement to protect their confidential information during the Collaborative Process. In contrast, if the parties seek a court resolution, it can be an uphill battle to protect financial information from public access.

The Collaborative Process is a voluntary process that bypasses the court system to reach dispute resolution. The parties commit to working for settlement only, without threatening court action. A collaboratively trained attorney assists each party throughout the process. In contrast to the court system, the parties and attorneys meet together to find solutions that work for both parties… MORE >

On May 18, 2012, in Port v. Cowan, the Maryland Court of Appeals unanimously held that Maryland courts will recognize a same-sex marriage validly entered into in another state for purposes of granting a divorce. Maryland’s highest court said that its holding is in line with Maryland’s history of according deference to marriages validly performed in other states, even if those states’ laws differ from Maryland’s. Moreover, Maryland statutes that accord rights to same-sex couples as domestic partners and prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in areas such as employment indicate that the Court’s decision is in line with Maryland’s public policy. In March 2012, Governor O’Malley approved a law that will legalize same-sex marriages performed in Maryland effective January 2013, or later, if the law… MORE >